We had an incredible trip to Barcelona! It was so nice to spend a week together with my husband. Traveling together is so much fun! I could have stayed another week and still would have felt like I had only seen a glimpse of the city. There is so much history to experience and an entirely different culture! The food, the narrow streets that wander around 700 year old buildings, and the architecture would have to be my top 3 favorite things about the city.
My top 10 random observations about Barcelona are:1. Everyone seems much more relaxed there. Maybe it's due to the 3 hour lunch break for siestas?
2. The dogs are very well behaved! People walk across horribly busy intersections with their dogs off the leash- and The Dog Stays Beside Them! If Sheba would have been with us and off her leash, she would have been in France by the time we crossed the street!
3. Old Spanish people stay up LATE! Many times we were out past midnight and we saw more people using walkers on the street than you would see at a Andy Williams concert!
4. They love techno music. It sounded like we were in
Abercrombie.
5. Nearly EVERYONE speaks English! Good news for us! Everyone that we met was super friendly and seemed pleased that we said "
Hola,
por favor, and
gracias" in Spanish. It's amazing what being polite will do for you!
6. There are no grocery bags. Better bring a backpack with you if you go to a Barcelona grocery store. We saw a group of American college students who had loaded up on booze and chocolate who had arm loads of their "groceries". Hilarious! The booze was cheaper than water so I can't blame them! ;-)
7. The water tastes like butt. Oh, I drank it so I didn't get dehydrated, but it was funky! Of course they have bottled water, but that gets expensive so we drank from our own bottle when we out walking around town.
8. The coffee was amazing! So was the food. And the ice cream. And the pastries! Oh, the gluttony!
9. People try to sell you cans of beer on the street late at night. Too funny.
10. You want a fake
prada purse, you can get one in Barcelona for 10 Euros!
Here are a few pics from the trip:
(This was the first view of the city from the plane. You can see the rocky Montserrat in the distance!)
We went to the top of Mount Tibidabo and saw the Sacred Heart (Sagrat Cor) church on top of the mountain. We could the outline of the church from downtown and it was quite majestic looking! There is a cable car that runs along the streets near the mountain but we never saw it. We just followed the cable car tracks up the side of the mountain and we were worn out when we got to the top. The walk was beautiful! We passed so many gorgeous homes that were all landscaped with colorful flowers. There were giant retaining walls beside the road and the flowers were everywhere! The entire walk up the mountain smelled like flowers. Then we took a little train car up the very steep side of the mountain to get to this church. The journey was SO worth it! The church was beautiful and we could see the whole city of Barcelona beneath us!
(walking up Tibidabo)
(Sagrat Cor or Sacred Heart Church)We walked around Miro Park and saw the colorful sculptures, flowers, and palm trees here. It's a very peaceful place where people play with their dogs, children play soccer, and some partake in an afternoon siesta!
(me in Miro Park)
Most of the people of Barcelona seem to be opposed to bull fighting. We heard that this was one of the first cities in Spain to work against banning the "sport" if you can call it that. They are remodeling the arena to be used for concerts and sporting events.
(the old bull fighting arena)On top of
Montjuic sits this building, the
Palau Nacional. It was built for the World's Fair in 1929. Now it is the home of the
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. There is so much amazing art in this building! There is everything from Gothic style paintings from the 1300's to paintings by Picasso and Dali.
We loved all the crazy Antoni
Gaudi architecture in Barcelona! That guy didn't seem to use a straight line on any of his buildings! His style made the buildings seem like a blurry, happy dream.
(Gaudi's staircase at the Park Guell)
(Gaudi's Casa Battlo)
(Gaudi's La Pedrera)
The parks in Barcelona are so beautiful! This fountain was in the prettiest park I have ever seen in my life- the Parc de la Ciutadella. It was so peaceful and relaxing! I could've stayed at this park all week! It's HUGE! There are big trees everywhere that seem to block out the noise from the city and give shade from the sun. We sat next to a lake here and watched people in rowboats. We just held hands and sat in total peaceful silence. Paradise.
The Spanish copied the French, who copied the Romans.... so here is the Spanish Arc
de Triumf. It was very pretty and the walkway in front of it is incredible! It's a huge open space lined with palm trees.
(Arc de Triumf)The Waterfront area was completely transformed for the '92 Olympics and they demolished many industrial and apartment buildings to make beaches for the city. This was supposed to be a representation of the buildings that used to line the water. If they really looked like this, they probably needed to be cleared away!
(Sant Sebastia Beach)
(Barcelona Head statue near the waterfront)
(So many sailboats at Port Vell!)
The
Sagrada Familia may have been my favorite church in Barcelona.... The Barcelona Cathedral was amazing but the facade was being renovated so it was covered in scaffolding. We toured other churches from the 1300's that were also incredible, but the
Sagrada Familia is just beautiful! The interior of the
Sagrada Familia was so light and colorful! I can only imagine how beautiful it will look when it is finally finished! They've been working on it since 1882!
Gaudi was a busy guy around Barcelona!
(Sagrada Familia)
Thanks for checking out the pictures and trip info! I would love to go back to Barcelona again!
We also did a day trip to Figueres but I will save that for another blog post!
